This invention relates to media asset management and harmonization of metadata in a media development setting.
Organizations such as television networks and motion picture studios often develop and/or distribute multimedia assets such as combined audio and video programming. Some examples of multimedia assets include pre-recorded original programming (e.g., a television series or a motion picture) and live programming (e.g., a sporting event). It is often the case that the organization stores copies of multimedia assets and associates metadata with the multimedia assets. Some examples of metadata that can be associated with multimedia assets include closed captions, subtitles, editor comments, timeline annotations, scene/shot/take notes, character descriptions, and so on.
It is often the case that various developers (e.g., video editors) at the organization use portions (sometimes referred to as ‘clips’) of stored multimedia assets to generate new multimedia assets. Very generally, a clip is defined as a segment of time in a multimedia asset that may include one or more of audio media, video media, metadata, and so on. For example, a portion of a multimedia asset related to a sporting event (e.g., a highlight) may be used to create a promotional multimedia asset for a broadcast of an upcoming sporting event. In another example, an editor at a motion picture studio may have multiple recorded instances of a single event (e.g., multiple camera angles) and may pick and choose different sections of the multiple recorded instances to generate a scene for the motion picture.